Before Final Fantasy VIII's release, there was much speculation as to whether the game would be mod-chip protected. Well, the word is in: FF8 does not work on systems equipped with a mod-chip, not even the newer "Phantom" chips. What does this mean for American gamers? Well, it's going to be a bit harder to play FF8 imports. Right now, the only option looks like a Yaroze, a PlayStation development system included with development kits which can be purchased for about $750, or a Game Shark code, and the latter could take quite a while. Why is Square doing this? It's actually not to stop Americans from playing games, it's to stop people from playing pirated versions in Asia.

Apparently the FF8 lockout has been bypassed with a GameShark code already. This code is unconfirmed by RPGamer, but it is said to work with mod chips. The code is: